


The Power of PTA Frisk!

by NoSleepUntilVacation



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - PTAtale, Comedy, Frisk is a Sweetheart, Gen, Non-Binary Frisk, Not Serious, Parody, Satire, Selectively Mute Frisk, Silly, Surprise Ending, The only PTA fic I'll probably ever write, With A Twist, the author's note explains why
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-27 02:10:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15014366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoSleepUntilVacation/pseuds/NoSleepUntilVacation
Summary: Frisk has been called into Linda's office for a talk, and their friends wait outside, ready to jump in and defend them. Nobody expects to see what they see when the door opens, though.





	The Power of PTA Frisk!

An entire crew of monsters waited with bated breath outside an elementary school office. The sign on the door advertised that one Linda Moore was the owner of said office; she was a pretty high-ranking official there. More importantly for this specific day, the door was closed. She'd made it clear that she had some... _issues_ with the way the monsters' close human friend, Frisk, lived their life. For this reason, she wanted to talk to them alone.

Thus, the monsters all kept their eyes on the door and their ears open. All it would take would be the sight of Frisk in tears or the sound of them crying, and just like that, most of them would jump to Frisk's defense at the drop of a hat.

Not all of them agreed on just what to do with Linda, though.

"I say we suplex her," Undyne said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her ankles.

Toriel blinked. "I would prefer a stern talking-to... a _very_ stern talking-to." Her brow furrowed, remembering the things Frisk had told her about Linda in the past.

"Hey, maybe we could meet somewhere in the middle?" Sans shrugged. "Just give her a talking-to, but make it clear that if this _ever_ happens again..."

"I think we should make friends with her!"

A number of very confused glances turned towards Papyrus, who himself tilted his head, wondering why everyone was looking at him like that.

One of those confused glances belonged to Mettaton. "I... beg your pardon, darling?"

Papyrus held fast, though. "We should make friends with her! Because the way she treats others... it's clear she wants friends, but is too much of an emotional cactus to admit it! So maybe, if we all offer to be her cool friends, she'll become a better person!"

There was silence for a moment, before Flowey spoke up from his flowerpot.

"Wow. You really don't get it, do you?"

After shooting Flowey a brief glare, Sans turned to Papyrus, sighing slightly. "Bro... listen. It's cool that you want to reach out to her. In fact, I wish more people would be like you in that regard. But the thing is..." He took a deep breath. "I don't think Linda _wants_ to be friends with us."

"I fear that Sans may be right," Toriel said. "In the past, she's refused to respect Frisk's pronouns, or their occasional need to use sign language. She once even suggested that Frisk be taught quiet hands."

Undyne sat upright. "She called Alphys and me bad role models just because we're two women in love!"

From her own seat, Alphys nodded, quivering slightly.

Mettaton sneered. "She tried to tell me I shouldn't like the color pink or have this fashion sense just because I'm a man. And that was _after_ she insisted that I was a woman! Honestly! Has she never heard of glam rock?"

Just then, Mad Dummy decided to speak up.

"She poisoned our water supply, burned our crops, and delivered a plague unto our houses!"

For the second time in the past few minutes, everyone sported odd looks at the person who just spoke up.

This time around, Asgore broke the silence. "Er... while I have heard horror stories about her, I don't think she ever did any of those things."

"She might. She might! _She might!_ " Also for the second time in the past few minutes, the person who spoke up refused to back down.

Before Flowey could ask if Mad Dummy had anything better to do, Papyrus decided to put two more cents in. "She's not going to want to listen to us if we're rude to her, though."

"Well, what are we supposed to do?" Undyne threw her arms upward. "We tried being nice to her before, and she shot us down!"

This discussion was getting so passionate that no one noticed a woman's voice coming from behind the door.

"Some of their discography deals with subjects a little mature for someone of your age, but in a few years, you should be old enough to understand why I like them so much, beyond the catchy music."

The doorknob rattled, and an older woman walked out, with Frisk close by.

Sans frowned, not noticing the new arrivals. "Bro, you know as well as I do that she's not gonna listen to us either way. We may have no choice but to put our collective foot down." Suddenly, he smirked. "It could be the only way to save Frisk's _sole._ "

He lifted up one of his slipper-clad feet and mimed a rimshot. Toriel giggled, Papyrus cried out his brother's name in an irate tone, and everyone else either groaned or didn't respond.

Papyrus rested his forehead in his hand. "Honestly, Sans, are you sure we can't just talk to her?"

"He's right, you know. Maybe she does just want to talk."

Everyone froze, recognizing whose voice that was. They all worked up the nerve to turn towards the voice.

It was none other than Linda, having just left her office. Whereas she'd previously looked like she'd never been introduced to the concept of joy in her life, she now seemed to be genuinely smiling. Next to her, Frisk was waving at their friends, excitedly signing the phrase *I did it!* repeatedly.

Toriel decided to be the first one to speak up this time. "Hello, Linda." She kept her tone neutral just for safety. "I trust everything went well?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, it did. But first of all..." She frowned. "I wanted to apologize."

Undyne looked for all the world like she wanted to bite off a _yeah, you'd better_ , but when Alphys looked at her, she decided to remain silent.

"My religion tells me not to judge people, and yet, I've been doing nothing but that recently." She gestured towards Frisk. "Frisk showed me some testimonials from different people; I never realized that forcing people to speak was a bad idea until they showed me what other people believed."

Among the monsters, it was so quiet that Linda's speech was the only thing preventing them from hearing a pin drop. _Did Linda just call Frisk "they"?_

"I was just going by what all those other parents wanted for their children; they wanted to hear their kids say 'I love you' so much that I never even thought it would be valid for the children to say it in other ways." Linda looked down. "I honestly thought I was doing those children, Frisk included, a favor; I never would have imagined it to be literally traumatic..."

"Well, wanting to help children is certainly an honorable sentiment," Toriel said. "And you have the authority to incorporate new methods at this school, do you not?"

"Indeed; I will have to conduct some research on possible new methods. But before I do..." She looked at the others. "Now, I must admit that there are some things I honestly don't understand; maybe I'm just old-fashioned that way. But that's no excuse for being rude to all of you. So, if I may..."

She walked up to Alphys and Undyne. "It was wrong of me to call the two of you bad role models, and I sincerely apologize. I should have gotten to know you before I made that judgment call."

"It's... it's okay!" Alphys shook Linda's hand. Undyne briefly looked puzzled, but decided not to say anything, remembering what Papyrus had said earlier.

Next, Linda walked over to Mettaton. "And you... Mettaton, was it? I may have grown up in a culture that said the color pink was for girls, but when you clarified that, where you're from, pink was just a color, I should have left it at that instead of insisting that you were wrong. I'm sorry I insulted your style."

She offered another handshake, and Mettaton took it. "I forgive you, darling. I've had to explain it to more than a few viewers, so you're not the only one."

For a brief moment, Linda looked puzzled. "Did... you just call me 'darling'?"

"He calls everyone that," Mad Dummy said. "Don't worry. Don't worry! _Don't worry!_ "

"I was about to say..." Linda lifted up her left hand, pointing out the ring around her finger. Finally, she walked over to Frisk. "Finally... Frisk, I already said this to you in the office, but I'll say it again so your friends can hear. Even if I didn't understand everything about you, I still never should have disrespected you like I did, and I'm very sorry."

Frisk smiled and formed a heart shape with their hands.

"Thank you for forgiving me." Linda looked at Frisk for a little while longer, smiling all the while, before turning to Toriel and Asgore. "Now then, why don't we go into my office, so we can begin setting up a plan to implement some new policies?"

As the three went off to do that, Frisk looked at everyone else with a huge grin. Their hands nearly flew all over the place in excitement. *Linda's actually a nice woman when you get to know her! We talked about how she makes specially-prepared baked goods for her son who can't eat certain things, and she told me about this band she likes called J-E-T-H-R-O T-U-L-L, and... what?*

Frisk stopped because they noticed the bewildered expressions on their friends' faces.

Undyne decided to say what was on everyone's mind. "What I wanna know is... how did you get through to her when no one else could?"

With a knowing grin, Frisk looked their friends in the eye. *I got through to her the same way I got through to all of you: with diplomacy and determination.*

Suddenly, everyone thought, Papyrus' earlier suggestion didn't seem so outlandish.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm gonna be pretty honest right now: am I the only Undertale fan who doesn't get the appeal of PTAtale? Sure, some may see it as heartwarming stories of how Frisk's friends will always be there for them, or as awesome stories where said friends tell it like it is, or even as funny stories not meant to be taken too seriously. And I'm not knocking any of the people who think that way.
> 
> When I look at PTAtale, though, I see something that totally undermines all three of the canon game's morals.
> 
> 1\. "Even the worst person can change, and anyone can be a good person if they just try": In many of these stories, Helen/Linda/Diana is portrayed as deliberately unpleasant as possible, with absolutely no redeeming qualities to speak of. Any traits that they're given are only there to underscore "look how evil and/or pathetic they are!" They don't even get the chance to redeem themselves at the end, and are instead left sitting in a pile of defeat. Even though, in the canon game, everyone had both very real strengths and very real character flaws, and all ended up befriending Frisk in the end. Even Flowey ended up having good qualities! (The one exception is Jerry, but at least he was meant to be a joke, instead of a Villain To Take Seriously.)
> 
> 2\. "Stay determined": A lot of these stories turn Frisk into a passive victim, who ends up feeling broken after Helen/Linda/Diana insults them, so that their friends can rush in to defend them. I'm sorry, but... you're telling me that Frisk can stand up to the entire Underground (including a ravenous spider queen, a famous celebrity, the Amalgamates, the entire Royal Guard up to and including their captain, and three out of four members of the royal family) but can't stand up to one bigoted human? By this logic, they should have been teetering on the edge of a breakdown after Undyne, and completely broken after Photoshop Flowey. And while I definitely understand the thought of Frisk's friends being there for them, because everyone has days where they need someone, I don't like the thought of Frisk being emotionally dependent on them to the point of "can't defend themselves anymore".
> 
> 3\. "The best way to get through to people is through diplomacy, not fighting": When Sans and company defend Frisk in PTA fics, it isn't usually through diplomatic measures. At best, all they do is insult Helen/Linda/Diana to their faces. At worst, you get what I saw in this other fic, where Sans, Undyne, Toriel, Mettaton, and even Papyrus threaten physical violence against Linda! (Why is Papyrus threatening someone?! He's the only fightable character besides Jerry who not only never kills you ever, but doesn't even try to fight you on the route in which you're killing everyone!) Frisk didn't get everyone to the surface by saying "Let me go or I'll freaking kill you"; in fact, saying those things to people tends to not only not get you what you want, but it makes them justified in not liking you.
> 
> Of course, these are all just my opinions, and I have been known to read too deeply into things. But sometimes, you can't help but notice fridge logic.


End file.
